Camcorders recording
in any of these formats typically record to hard disks, optical
media, or flash memory media, not to videotape. These camcorders
and formats are therefore called file-based, or tapeless,
rather than tape-based.

The video and audio from a file-based
camcorder are already contained in digital files. No capture or digitizing step
is necessary to bring them into Premiere Pro. Reading the data from
the recording media and converting it to a format that can be used
in a project is instead called ingest. Premiere Pro
ingests files in any of these file-based formats from any of their
media.

AVCHD
video files are in the STREAM folder. For more information about
the AVCHD format, see the AVCHD website

The Panasonic P2 format

A P2 card is a
solid-state memory device that plugs into the PCMCIA slot of a Panasonic
P2 video camera, such as the AG-HVX200. The digital video and audio data
from the video camera is recorded onto the card in a structured,
codec-independent format known as MXF (Media eXchange Format).
Specifically, Premiere Pro supports the Panasonic Op-Atom variant
of MXF, with video in DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, or AVC-I
formats. A clip is in the P2 format if its audio and
video are contained in Panasonic Op-Atom MXF files. These files
are located in a specific file structure.

The root of the
P2 file structure is a CONTENTS folder. Each essence item
(an item of video or audio) is contained in a separate MXF wrapper
file. The video MXF files are in the VIDEO subfolder, and the audio
MXF files are in the AUDIO subfolder. XML files in the CLIP subfolder
contain the associations between essence files and the metadata
associated with them.

Note:

Premiere Pro does not support proxies
recorded by some Panasonic P2 camcorders in P2 card PROXY folders.

For
your computer to read P2 cards, it needs the appropriate driver,
which you can download from the Panasonic website. Panasonic also
provides the P2 Viewer application, with which you can browse and
play media stored on a P2 card.

Note:

To use certain features
with P2 files, you first change the file properties from read only
to read and write. For example, to change the timecode metadata
of a clip using the Timecode dialog box, you first set the file
properties to read and write. Use the operating system file explorer
to change file properties.

DVD camcorders and DVD recorders
capture video and audio into MPEG-encoded VOB files. VOB files are
written into a VIDEO_TS folder. Optionally, ancillary audio files
may be written into an AUDIO_TS folder.

Note:

Premiere Pro and
Premiere Elements, do not import or decrypt encrypted DVD files.

Import assets from file-based sources
with Media Browser

You can import assets into Premiere Pro directly from tapeless media. However, it is more efficient to transfer tapeless media contents to a hard disk before importing. Also, playback performance is much better from a dedicated internal hard drive or RAID than from a camera or memory card reader. Larger icons are available to preview clips in the Media Browser. You can scrub, and hover scrub to preview your footage more easily before importing it. For details, see Working in Icon view.

Use the Media Browser, instead of File > Import, to import files from tapeless sources. The Media Browser assembles the relevant files into coherent clips, and does not import irrelevant non-media files sometimes found in the folders of tapeless media.

You can drag selected assets directly into the Project panel from the Media Browser. You can also select assets, and then choose File > Import from Media Browser, or right-click and then choose Import from the context menu.

The default workspace has the Project panel and the Media Browser docked into the same panel. It is not apparent that you can drag clips into the Project panel in this workspace configuration, but you can. To import assets into the Project panel from the Media Browser, select the clips you wish to import, and then drag them to the Project tab. The assets will then be imported.

(Optional) Transfer the entire contents of one
or more P2 cards, Sony Compact Flash cards, XDCAM media, XDCAM EX
SxS cards, hard disk camcorders, DVDs, or AVCHD media to a hard
disk. For information about transferring these media, see About
transferring files.

Note:

For XDCAM EX, copy the entire BPAV folder and
its contents, not just one MP4 file at a time.

If the Media Browser is not already open, select Window
> Media Browser.

Note:

You can dock or group the Media Browser like any
other panel in Premiere Pro.

Browse to the folder containing the media files.

The Media Browser shows a thumbnail or icon (depending
on the format) and shot name for each shot in the folder. The Media
Browser automatically aggregates spanned clips and shot metadata
from the subfolders into single clips for any of these formats.
The Media Browser shows different sets of metadata for different
formats.

(Optional) To preview a shot before importing it, double-click
the shot in the Media Browser.

Premiere Pro plays the clip in the Source Monitor
without importing it into the Project panel.

Either select File > Import From Browser, drag clips
from the Media Browser into the Project panel, or drag clips from
the Media Browser into a timeline.

The asset or assets are imported into the Project panel
as whole clips.

About spanned clips

When a shot or take is recorded
requiring more than the file size limit of a medium, a file-based
camcorder starts another file, and continues recording the shot
to that file without interruption. This is referred to as clip
spanning because the shot spans more than one file or clip.
Similarly, a file-based camcorder sometimes spans a shot across
clips on different cards or disks, if the camcorder has more than
one card or disk loaded. It records the shot until it runs out of
room on the first medium, then starts a new file on the next medium
with available space, and continues recording the shot to it. Although
a single shot or take can be recorded to a group of multiple spanned
clips, it is designed to be treated as a single clip.

For P2 and XDCAM EX, Premiere Pro imports all of the spanned
clips within a single shot or take as a single clip. It will import
all the clips within a shot on a card when you select any one of
them, provided none of the spanned clips is missing and the relevant
XML is present. When one or more spanned clips are missing from
a shot, Premiere Pro will import one or more of them depending on
where the missing clips fall within the shot.

To import a group of spanned clips, select one of them to import
all of them. If you select more than one spanned clip, you will
import duplicates of the whole group of spanned clips as duplicate
clips in the Project panel.

If the group of spanned clips itself spans two P2 or XDCAM EX
cards, copy the full directory trees from them both to same-level
folders on the hard disk before importing. For P2 media only, you
can alternatively import clips spanning two P2 cards if both cards
are simultaneously mounted to your computer.